


a life is so much more than a weapon in a time of war

by berriesbloom



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Developing Friendships, First Meeting, Gen, Light Angst, Mentions of Doomsday Fight, Piglin Hybrid Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Puffy-centric, Sheep Hybrid Cara | CaptainPuffy, Team Bonding, i left technos appearance up to interp but in my heart he is full piglin, just an alt meeting btwn puffy and techno where its more serious than roasting bbh for his boots, kind of, techno wants to invite puffy to the arctic alliance sooo bad, vaguely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29642118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/berriesbloom/pseuds/berriesbloom
Summary: Puffy has a meeting with the Blade.(or, puffy and techno have a serious conversation about the egg and what it means for both of them.)
Relationships: Cara | CaptainPuffy & Technoblade, Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, mentions of
Comments: 5
Kudos: 93





	a life is so much more than a weapon in a time of war

**Author's Note:**

> obligatory this is not about the actual content creators but about the characters on the dream smp. god bless the day this wretched fucking site gives us character tags for the actual characters. and of course if the ccs are not cool with this content, it gets taken down. 
> 
> also ooooh im like magically enchanting you to leave kudos on this fic and also comments oooh i hope you enjoy this, it's my first dsmp fic, hopefully more to come oooh i am easily influenced by outside validation ooooh
> 
> also the title is an altered lyric from robby hecht's "the ends and the means" :)

There’s an eerie peace that settles itself over the snow, Puffy has realized.

As she treks through inches of it, her horse’s hooves crunch into the icy flecks. It’s the only sound around her, save for the faint chirps of hostile creepers she can’t see through the curtain of white resting over the land. One hand wraps itself in Cottonball’s reins, while the other rests on a primed crossbow in her lap. She watches as the expanse of ground in front of her shifts and curves into dangerous hidden dips downwards before it stretches up and into the clouds. 

Her ears, buried inside a warm woven hood, flick uneasily at the lack of activity around her. Compared to the constant sound of redstone humming and animals running about the Greater lands of the server, it’s no surprise a land so untouched by player interaction feels off. It’s been so long since the only thoughts in her head have solely been hers too. The creeping whispers of the crimson vines invading the SMP are nonexistent out here. All there is is quiet common dangers and cold that seeps into your bones.

Puffy can’t help but feel nervous. Just as nervous as she’d been when she first came out here, to the Arctic hills. When she’d climbed into a small attic filled with books and a plain bed tucked in a corner. When she left a note for the Blade.

At least now there was more certainty in their exchanges. Once she’d let him know she was interested in talking, he’d left another message, telling her to come back for an actual audience with him. It’d been hard enough to leave the Greater Dream SMP lands for a quick trip to leave a note in the first place. She had to lay low enough so mercenaries with her name on their lists wouldn’t see her, and be lucky enough to not be caught by anyone else on her way back. As much as she trusted her son, and her few remaining friends, she doubted anyone would appreciate her seeking counsel with the Blade for anything but a Doomsday rematch.

Puffy inhales sharply when she catches a glimpse of lanterns and a faint beam of light shooting into the sky. She snaps Cottonball’s reins and pushes her horse forward just a bit quicker, her goal in sight. 

As she nears the cozy winter cabin, it’s almost as if the nature around her begins to grow louder. The uneasy silence of the snow turns into shuffles of undead almost constantly in her ears, skeletons of adventuring parties ragged with deadly arrows trudging through the snow aimlessly. The anxiety she’d been nursing in her gut found its way into her shaking fingers. 

The crescendo of danger around her quiets when she finally slows to a stop several blocks away from the house. Puffy tucks her crossbow away as she swings down from Cottonball’s saddle. Her grip on it’s reins doesn’t falter, white knuckled as she stomps through the piles of snow covering the dead grassy ground. She peers up at the quaint little house. It’s almost transformed in the nighttime, she realizes. The previously busy buzzing of the bee farm was now silent, with honey-colored lanterns swaying in the breeze from crudely crafted chains. She hears the chuffs of nearby foxes, and the sniffs of snow rabbits. The spruce forming the foundation of the cabin looks warmer than it did in the blinding light of the sun. She looks at the white quartz walls and misses what she remembers of her flower shop.

Her ear twitches at the sound of a trapdoor swinging open, and she immediately swivels her head to look up at the source. 

“Easy there.” Technoblade’s slightly familiar vice drifts down from a now open makeshift window, and she can barely make out smudges of pink before he ducks back inside. She raises her hands up, showing the reins before he assumes she’s come with a stack of explosives and a flint and steel. She hears his deep hum of approval before the trapdoor window shuts. “Stay where you are. I’m coming down.”

Puffy exhales sharply, pulling Cottonball closer to her. She rests her free hand on the side of its muzzle. She can hear the sounds of his heavy boots very faintly from inside his cabin, and she resists the urge to shift from hoof to hoof nervously. When a door opens, she straightens herself up, and looks over the the stairs leading up into the house.

Technoblade’s head is turned to the side, regarding her cooly from above. His hip is cocked to the side, a gloved hand resting on the hilt of his sword and the other on the wooden railing to his left. His ornate and heavy cloak rests over one shoulder, the glint of its golden embellishments drawing her eye to the finery. The only armor he wears are enchanted netherite boots, calf guards, and gauntlets. She would say he looks comfortable in the cold, if it wasn’t for the flick of his ears when flecks of snow fall by him. The Blade radiates power, and if Puffy hadn’t dealt with powerful people before, she’d be at a disadvantage. She looks away from him, and gestures at the reins in her hand. 

“Mind if I tie up my horse here? Seems like the best place for it.” 

Technoblade shrugs. “Sure. Come in when you’re done. Weapons down.” He waves her towards the makeshift stables in front of the house, and turns away. She watches him walk back in before finally tying the lead to one of the fence posts. She weaves the rope into a quick steady knot, taking the moment to collect herself. Straightening her armor, she gives Cottonball a pat before stepping towards the entrance to Techno’s cabin.

The door is unlocked, and Puffy quickly steps in, closing it behind her. The ground floor of the cabin seems unchanged since she was in here last, chests and the like in one corner with a crackling fireplace and living room. It is nothing luxurious, but after hours of riding horseback, the sharp warmth bleeding into her bones is a welcome relief. A massive polar bear sleeps peacefully by one of the armchairs, which she assumes is Techno’s, and she can see barrels and brewing stands stacked in another corner. She lowers her hood, ears flicking, and looks back to Techno. After she gestures again with her empty hands, he points to one of the couches close to the fireplace, and she sits down.

“Out of all the people I expected to hear from, one of the knights of the throne isn’t exactly one of them. I expected, like, angry death threats or, god forbid, nothing, from the Dream SMP lands for a while. I thought blowing up a country for the second time was enough to get people off my back, y’know?” Techno moves to the armchair, sword in one hand and a whetstone in the other. He sits comfortably on the edge of his seat, his intimidating figure twirling the whetstone in between his fingers. She can feel his eyes on her, and opts to stare at her hands clenched in her lap. “I totally haven’t been back there in a while, too. I know when I’m not welcome somewhere. Definitely have not been back there.”

“I’m not here about that.” She traces a groove in the back of her iron gauntlet. “L’manburg is gone, and while I might not agree with what you did, it’s in the past.” Puffy pauses before glancing up to meet Techno’s gaze. “And I’m not a knight. Not anymore. I’m not here on behalf of Eret, or the Dream SMP, or anything or anyone else. I’m here about the Egg.”

“The egg?” Techno barks a laugh, settling back in his chair. His blade rests across his lap, and he draws the whetstone across its surface. Puffy looks at the grooves in its metal, trying to not remember the bones that sword has broken and the lives it has ended. “Alright then. What egg? You’re going to have to fill me in on whatever that is. Remember, ch-. Hm. Remember. I haven’t been in the loop recently, at all.”

She huffs at his sarcasm and leans forward, elbows braced on her knees. “Got it. Not in the loop. Okay.” Puffy watches the flames in the fireplace lick at the logs inside it, curling around rough bark. “The egg is.... We were clearing out a cavern next to the spider spawner. The communal one. Bad built some statues inside it, was planning on building more if I remember correctly.”

_Their footsteps echo when the three of them walk over to the.. Odd red growth in the corner. It almost made Puffy want to barf, watching the weird crimson flesh vines shift over the smooth stone floor. Bad was looking at it closer than he should be, his hand hovering over a glowing orange blossom on one of the vines. Its light reflected off of his face, his void black skin glimmering with an unnatural sheen. Puffy glanced over to Ant, perched on a cobblestone fence in front of the entrance. His eyes were glued to the red growth in the corner. The uneasy feeling in her gut grew._

“These vines spread at a normal rate at first. When we were able to block its influence off with obsidian, they stopped for a period of time, but it didn’t last long. It got to everyone again, and with help, it was everywhere in just a few days. They ended up in places normal plants aren’t able to get to. The more they spread, the more the Egg’s influence grows over everything. And everyone.” Puffy tugs at the fingers on her glove, slipping it off to glance over the faint red scars on the back of her hand. When she flexes her fingers, the remnants of the Egg’s brief control over her flex as well. 

“Sounds more like a pest control problem than anything, really.” The sharp ting of stone against his blade drawls behind Techno’s words. “I can do pests, no problem, but I’m no glorified exterminator. I’d think that would be obvious.”

“I wish it was as simple as that, Techno. The problem isn’t the vines themselves, there’s plenty of ugly builds around the server.” Techno snorts, and Puffy cracks a hesitant smile before continuing. “We could deal with some vines. It’s the control the Egg has. The things that it makes people do for it. It’s horrible. It talks to you, and it’s so stifling. The worse it gets, the less you can even think for yourself. When it controlled me, Techno, it promised so many things. And I hurt people for it. I killed for it. It’s _bad_.”

Techno sits back in his chair. The orange light shifts across his face, his eyes bright in the shadows of the room. His black fingernails tap against the whetstone, and his expression shifts to something Puffy can’t quite read before he speaks. “You see, Puffy, I am no stranger to violence. None, and I mean _none_ of what you’re describing to me, is unfamiliar to me. I’m known for committing terrible, terrible acts, and despite what you know of me, you’re here, asking me to commit another one. And I don’t do them for no reason.” He twirls the whetstone in between his fingers, and flips it with his thumb into the air. He catches it, and points it towards Puffy. “What reason would I have to do this?”

_The roars of the Withers swarming over L’manburg shook the ground beneath her feet. Her shield was braced in front of her, sword at the ready as Hbomb helped Jack limp to safety behind a piece of shattered stone. She’d just finished off another Wither, standing back up to quickly look over the steaming crater being dug into where a country once stood. She saw Tommy and Tubbo, kneeling together on a tall piece of debris. Technoblade, armed to the teeth, was across from them. She couldn’t make out what either party was saying, not with the Withers and the explosives thundering around her. But she could see the pain in Techno’s eyes. He swung his hand out to the destruction around him, and said something to Tommy before aiming his crossbow at him. She flinched as she watched Tubbo take the shot for him. Puffy didn’t miss the way Techno’s hands shook after the confrontation._

Puffy stands up from the couch. She steps in front of his chair, her shadow falling over him. Backlit by the fire, she snatches the whetstone from his hand, and he makes no move to grab it back. He just looks up at her, hand on his sword. 

“Because it’s only a matter of time until it gets here too. All it takes is a wandering traveler to track a seed here on their boot, or some animal to die too close to the water you drink from. I know you can defend yourself, and even if it gets rough, you have plenty of weighted lifes to fall back on. I don’t know you for your violence, Technoblade, I know you for your determination. Nothing stops you from what you want.” Her hand closes around the whetstone. It’s well-used, chunks of its surface missing with a scratchy smooth finish. Fingerprints are rubbed into it, too small to have been from just Techno’s. She looks over it, and back to the piglin in front of her.

“Maybe none of what I’ve told you matters to you, and that’s fine. But you aren’t as unreadable as you think. I saw you during Doomsday. I saw you at the community house.” Techno’s ear flicks, and his teeth grit. There’s a cold spark of emotion in his eyes at the mention of the community house, but before he can pull himself up to his full height, she raises her hand to stop him. He stills. “You’re plenty capable of handling yourself. But it’s only a matter of time until the Egg and the Eggpire targets the people you care about, or before they become part of it too. I’ve seen many of my friends fall to this, Techno, and all I want is to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Techno glances past her, to a window behind her overlooking the area behind his cabin. He scoffs, and rubs his chin before looking back up to her. “You make a good point. Heh.”

Puffy hands him back the whetstone. He pockets it, and sheaths his sword. She steps back, towards the couch but not sitting back down.

“I can pay you too, but honestly, I’m not really sure if there’s anything I could give you that you don’t already have.” Puffy gestures around the room to the ender chest and ceiling-high chests. Techno laughs, and stands as well. She looks up at him. “I have diamonds. Tridents. No totems, but maybe I could do fetch quests or just owe you something.”

“Heh. Usually it’d be cooler to just say no payment or whatever, but I am a simple man who is all for someone owing me something. Tell you what.” Techno stalks over to one of his chests, and Puffy watches as he rustles through it. He pulls out a couple of golden apples, and tosses one to her. She catches it, and looks at it questioningly. He takes a large bite out of his, chewing and watching her before nodding towards her. She takes a cautious bite. Puffy can’t taste any poison; she’d be able to identify it from a sniff. She takes another. “I’ll think about payment. Come up with something. Not like dismantling an empire is going to happen overnight. If I can’t figure out any, like, material item for you to get me, then you’ll just owe me one of your lives. Or a really really big favor.”

Puffy’s next bite of apple is a bit harder to swallow after hearing that. She nods grimly, hiding the harsh set of her jaw behind the half eaten fruit hovering near her mouth. Techno chuckles, and moves to light a few of the lanterns in the room. The tense atmosphere from before has faded away, and as he busies himself with the lighting, Puffy moves to peek out of one of the trapdoor windows. It’s a good vantage point for anything one’d need to see, she muses. Good for aiming a crossbow, good for seeing if anyone’s there. Probably easy to escape the house too if someone needed to. And the noise it makes would be enough to alert its occupants to any intruders. She idly finishes her apple, enjoying the distant buzz of its magic through her fingers as she squints outside.

The moon is rising in the sky, and because of her presence here, the grounds just beyond the house are crawling with hostile mobs. Puffy has to duck a bit to escape the wandering gaze of one of the many skeletons outside. It’s going to be a heck of a time trying to dodge those on the way home. Cottonball’s been resting for some time, it can probably handle a sprint through the snow into the slightly more safer plains just beyond the snow. She would, however, run the risk of accidentally careening into an unseen hole in the ground, which could injure both her and Cottonball. Getting home safely at this time of night is going to be rough.

“You know,” Puffy jumps slightly when Techno reappears right behind her. He peers over her and through the window, looking over his front yard. “We have a dog house right next to this one. If you don’t mind sleeping with a bunch of wolves, you can stay in that for the night. Even I wouldn’t go out in that kind of, eh, weather. Hate to see an innocent horse get killed.” He sighs and straightens back up. “But you’re helping me make dinner. I’ll be severely disappointed in you and myself if you can’t dice potatoes decently, though. Disappointed in you for obvious reasons, and me for making a deal with someone who can’t use a kitchen knife.” 

She rolls her eyes, and closes the window. “Are you ever not condescending, Techno? I’m feeling a bit insulted, you know. Assuming I can’t cut something right. Clearly you didn’t see me making mince out of your withers.”

“You’re right, I didn’t. I was too busy being really good at killing people and dismantling countries.”

Puffy shrugs off her heavy winter jacket, slinging it over the sofa. Rolling her sleeves up after a bit of hesitation, she quietly thanks Techno’s pointed look away from the red lines that start from her fingers and trace up her forearm. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Violence. Anarchy. Grr. Where’s your kitchen?”

Techno points towards a room to the left, and she starts to walk toward it as Techno abandons his cloak besides her coat. She pauses and looks back to him.

“Techno?” 

He looks at her, raising an eyebrow.

“Thank you.”

His eyes shine in the darkness, and Puffy sees a glimpse of that determined piglin she’d seen for the first time amid explosions and destruction those weeks ago. It fades, and he hums, brushing past her unto the kitchen.

Puffy glances out the window one last time, eyes drawn to the lantern hooked on the roof outside. The light flickers, and when the flame steadies itself, Puffy follows Techno inside.

**Author's Note:**

> c!puffy is so much more complex than so many people realize i swear to god. there isnt just one girlboss on the server, technoblade /j


End file.
